An EBS-backed instance is very much like a physical machine in the way it boots and persists data. Because an EBS-backed instance functions in a manner similar to physical machine, it makes it a good choice to run legacy applications that cannot be re-architected for the cloud.Â
An EBS-backed boot volume can still be protected by taking a snapshot of it. In fact, other non-boot volumes can be attached to the EBS-backed instance and they can be protected using snapshots too.